230 REVIEWS OF RECENT BOOKS 



author himself says, he writes "With brutal frankness," but at the 

 same time he gives us a strong and lucid criticism of the Christian 

 Religion as it appears to him. We are reminded of a similar book 

 written by Mr. A. Michie, several years ago — "An Open Letter to 

 Missionaries by a Candid Friend." It would be interesting to compare 

 the two productions. Unless our memory is at fault Mr. Michie was 

 rather more sympathetic with the missionary movement in China than 

 Mr. Johnston appears to be. 



The extended review which this book deserves would be more in 

 place in a theological or philosophical magazine than in the Journal of 

 the Royal Asiatic Society, and hence we feel obliged to curb our 

 inclination to deal with all the questions raised by Mr. Johnston, and 

 to confine ourselves to pointing out briefly some of the merits and 

 defects of his arguments. The author is much incensed by the fact 

 that the old fashioned view of a hell of endless duration is so widely 

 preached in China, and wants to put a stop to what he considers an 

 iniquitious propaganda. 



He concludes his introduction with these words, "If the peoples 

 of the West value the souls of the 'heathen' as highly as they profess 

 to do they will surely prohibit a traffic which is just as morally inde- 

 fensible as the trade in opium or cocaine." 



The use of the word traffic is unfortunate as the missionary 

 presents his teaching without charge and does not expect any monetary 

 compensation. 



Although his language is somewhat strong we feel much sympathy 

 with the writer's moral indignation, but our regret is not caused so 

 much by the fact that harm is being done to the people of China as 

 by the fact that harm is being done to the cause of Christ. State- 

 ments of Christianity which are so much at variance with the spirit 

 of the Master Himself must injure His cause, and retard the 

 Christianization of the world. 



It does not seem to us to be strictly in accord with facts to 

 claim as the author does that the motive of fear is largely absent from 

 the popular religion of China. In preaching hell, the missionary 

 brings nothing new to China. In fact in order to express himself, 

 and make his meaning intelligible to his hearers, he has to rely largely 

 upon the vocabulary of the Buddhist religion. 



On page 26, he criticizes some statements made in "Heathenism 

 under the Searchlight," by W. Remfry Hunt, in regard to the 

 Buddhists terrifying little children with pictures of hell. The state- 

 ment may not be accurate, but surely the author must have seen the 

 representations of the halls of purgatory to be found in many temples. 

 It would be difficult to imagine anything more horribly cruel ! Again 



